The Descendants

Matthew King, the protagonist of this novel, lives in Hawaii and owns, with his relatives, most of the land of the island. Why? Because they're the descendants of a white merchant and an indeginous princess.

However, the story written by  female author Kaui Hart Hemmings (I've looked it up) is about the accident that leaves Matthew's wife in an irreversible comma state, how their two daughters (one a teenager, the other a 10-year-old) react to the fact that their mother will die, how Matthew tries to handle the girls after being an absent father his whole life, how their days change forever. Besides, you have to remember Matthew's wife's lover, something that Matthew discovers when his eldest daughter tells him about.

However sad and dramatic this topic is, the story is narrated in such a fun way that you find yourself laughing out loud. Matthew's eldest daughter is an ex-alcoholic and ex-model who tries to comfort his father while going out with a creepy boy who has the most unexpected responses (causing him to end up with a balck eye from Matthew's father-in-law). The 10 year-old is so much influenced by media and the idea of acting like a teenager that the way she talks and acts surprise you every minute. In the meantime, Matthew is trying to right his life, finding answers for his too many questions. 

We, readers, imagine Hawaii as an ideal place, full of palm trees and surfers. However, when the other side is told, you start to hate sunny day when you're blue, you want a cloud to appear in the horizon, you want your tears secluded away from turists and sand.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

El Libro de la Sal

Bihn es un muchacho vietnamita, cocinero en Francia (casi adoptado) por Gertrude Stein y su secretaria/amante Alice B. Toklas. Estos personajes realmente existieron, tanto las mujeres como el joven cocinero, lo que llevó a la escritora Monique Truong a relatar sus vidas desde el punto de vista del joven.

La cocina es el reino de Bihn, quien ha aprendido sobre la comida francesa en su Vietnam de origen de la mano de su hermano mayor, cocinero del cónsul.

Así, buscando una nueva vida después de tener que escapar debido a una situación dramática, encontrará en la casa de las dos mujeres un refugio en el primer mundo. La cocina es un lugar único en esa casa debido a las reuniones que 'La Generación Perdida' norteamericana organiza para conversar de libros, arte, pasión, deseo.

Es el deseo lo que primordialmente mueve a Bihn y así, dudará si seguir a las dos damas en su regreso a América, o quedarse en París, a la proximidad de una guerra, a una inestabilidad que lo sumerge en el más profundo de sus temores.

La sal, presente en todas las comidas, en el sudor, en la lágrimas, desarrolla esta novela sugestiva, dónde el paladar sólo busca placer, descripciones que llegan al lector en colores, aromas, gustos, palabras que invitan, intrigan, atrapan, envuelven.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

Great Writers: Toni Morrison

 Toni Morrison is one of my favourite writers. She's the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, her work  depicting the African-American world in the USA in different times, their beliefs and traditions, portraying them as real people, for the first time away from the stereotypes white authors have created.

I'm only going to talk about the book I've read. Morrison's language is poetic, full phrases can be quoted as they display the truth about the human race, beyond race and religion. What is important to say is that Morrison's stories take place in black neighbourhoods, there are few or none white characters in her narratives.





'The Bluest Eye' was the first book I read. It has a complex beggining, the fragmentation of a nursery rhyme, showing that the childhood of the characters is not going to be what the reader's expected to. 

Claudia, a child, tells the story of her neighbourhood during her childhood after the Depression, especially the story of her friend Pecola, who feels inferior because of her dark complexion. Pecola's only dream is to have blue eyes, which, according to her own belief, would help her to improve her life considerably. However, her whole life changes during a terrible afternoon, a story of abuse and pain, all depicted from the perspective of a young girl.






'Beloved' is my favourite book. Its dedication says 'Sixty Million and more', making reference to the black slaves and their descendants who died in the Slave Trade.

The story takes place after the American Civil War and it tells the story of Sethe, a slave who escapes a plantation with two of her children. After twenty-eight days of freedom, following the Fugitive Slave Act, a posser appears to retrieve her to her owner, but she decides to kill her child before letting her live as a slave. Years later, a woman appears claiming to be Beloved, the murdered daughter, full of passion and poison.






In 'Mercy', Morrison analyses the beggining of slavery, claiming that it is in the foundation of the American society.

It tells the story of Florens, a black slave, and her relationship with her owner Rebekka Vaark, inmigrat from England, both of them becoming attached to each other as they have to get used to to their new surroundings. When Rebekka became ill, is Florens who has to search for the remedy in the form of a freed-black man.





'Sula' is one of the first stories in American literature that retells the friedship between two women.

 Bottom is a black neighbourhood. The girls Nel and Sula become friends, disregarding their completely different families. Nel's families is stable and believes in social conventions; the only peculiar character is Nel's grandmother Rochelle, a former prostitute. Sula's family is very different: her grandmother Eva and her mother Hannah are believed  by the town to be eccentric, having male boarders in their house, something considered indecent at that time.
However, an accident changes Sula and Nel's lives forever, as they become apart. 







Being very concise in contrast to her other works, 'Home' displays Morrison's powerful language, its poetic element, its unforgettable ideas.
It narrates the story of Frank Money. He is 24 and fought in the Korean War in an army made up of black and white soldiers, who fraternised without problems.
However, when he becomes a veteran, and as he travels through the country to his homeland, he realises his position in society remains the same, a second degree citizent, a black man in a white wold.






Milkman, the male protagonist of 'Song of Solomon', is nicknamed with that ridiculuos name as consequence of being breastfed until he was old enough to be wearing pants. He is considered a momma's boy, in contrast to his best friend Guitar, who is fatherless and motherless.


 The story is told in sections that skip through time, making the reader unpuzzle the narrative as it develops. 

Milkman's mother, Ruth, is the daughter of the only black doctor in town. Her husband becomes obsessed with the idea that Ruth loves his father more than she loves him, being physically aggressive towards her. Besides, Milkman's father, Macon Dean Jr., has a sister called Pilate who takes the role of Earth Mother in the story. Her granddaughter Hagar is desperately in love with Milkman, but he rejects her and, as a consequence, she tries to kill him in several opportunities. She is not the only characters who tries to kill Milkman, as an adult Guitar believes he has cheated him with a treasure they found, money to be used to kill white people.



As you can see, Morrison's work is varied and  intriguing, complex and inviting. You can choose the one that attracts you the most and meet an author that would surely surprise you and enlarge your understanding of the world.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

Short Stories Collections

Today I've chosen two writers who are American but whose parents are Mexican and Indian.

The first I'll mention is Sandra Cisneros. She was born in the USA, daughter of a Mexican man and and Mexican-American woman. Her stories are told in the shape of vignettes, showing the lives of Latin American inmigrants who live in the USA but have families in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Rep. Dominicana, keeping in touch with their roots.

Her stories are focused on women and the limits American culture and language impose on them as well as the Latino culture's preconceptions about their rights and obligations.

The language of the stories is poetic, struggling to shade light even in the darkest corners. One of my favourite stories is about a girl who's eleven but explaining that depending on the circumstances, her emotional age changes: She is eleven when she takes care of her younger siblings but she is two when she getS stubborn and wants the last lollipop.

A very different view is shown in Jhumpa Lahiri's stories. She was also born in the USA, both her parents migrating from India. Her narrative displays the lives of the Indian inmigrants in America, the lives of the women enclosed in their flats, alone, the opinions of others regarding their religion and traditions, their beliefs, their emotions.

The language is simpler; however, there is more than what is shown in the surface. She points out the fact that many Americans consider them as 'exotic', denying them the possibility to blend in their surrounding society. As the tourits following the book guide and taking pictures of every monkey they encounter in their way ( in the story 'Interpreter of Maladies'), Americans separate themselves from these inmigrants, considering them foreigners even tough they were born in American soil, just because of the saris they wear and the colour of skin they have.

One of my favourites stories is 'A Temporary Matter', in which Lahiri shows how the gap between a young couple enlarges as they sit in the dark (only iluminated by candles), telling each other secrets, opening their heart for the first time.

Both collections are enriching, the reader learning with each paragraph, digging in the souls of these characters who are trying to find their place as they have their lives divided between two places, not sure which of them they could call HOME.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

Children's Book:The Underneath

This novel is one of the most intriguing works I've ever read for children. It's so pure, unique that I truly understand why  it's a Newbery Honor book.

The main characters are animals: a hound, a cat with her two little kittens, a huge alligator, an imprisoned snake and her daughter, a hawk, and a human called Gar face.
They are so complex, their voces so well-developed that you can feel each animal's spirit rising from the pages. 

The underneath is the only place safe for the little kittens. Gar face, even as a child, is the personification of evil, dreaming about hunting wild animals, killing them, skinning them, especially, the King Alligator.

When he discovers the kittens, their mother understands that only being together could they survive. In her last moments, she asked her little son to keep a promise too big for him.

We also meet Grandmother and her story of pain, jeaulosy and attonement. Her daughter Night Song, her husband Hawk Man and their little daugther belong to the mythological aspect of the narrative, bringing magic to the pages.

The illustrations are incredible and the story is so well-built that in the end, all comes together magestically. Take a cup of coffee, a blanket and curl yourself on a comfortable chair. You'd become part of another world, a unique place where hummingbirds are waiting for all of us.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

YA (Young Adult) Novel: Eleanor & Park

"Eleanor was right: She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something."

This is the story of two underdogs. Eleanor  has red hair, curls, curves, is tall, bony. Park is half-Korean, according to his dad a bit girlie, wears make-up, listens to music too loud for his own good. They find each other on the bus, going to school and ignoring the bullies' shoutings.

Their love is complicated not only because of the bullies' attacks but also because of the unstability of her family life: a step-dad cruel and violent, a mum trying to avoid quarrels, her little siblings making choices they aren't prepared for.

When being invisible is not enough, sometimes you must face the fact that beauty is hidden even in the darkest places.

Music, books and especially comics build a bridge between two worlds in 1986, the time when it took hours to record a lists of songs you've lovingly put on a tape for the one you love (idea my teenager students have problem understanding). I remember using a pen to rewind the tape; even covering the little squares on the edges with sellotape to record new songs.

This  story is not only for girls; boys would also enjoy the way two people find love against all odds.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks